Alexander Imich
Dr. Alexander Herbert Imich, PhD (4 February 1903 – 8 June 2014) was a Polish-born American chemist, parapsychologist and writer, who was the president of the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center in New York City. Aside from that, Dr. Imich was awarded the Guinness World Records title of Oldest living man on 8 May 2014 at the age of 111 years and 93 days after Arturo Licata died, as the youngest man to hold this title since Tomoji Tanabe did in January 2007. He died at 111 on 8 June 2014, making Sakari Momoi the new oldest living man; Momoi was born one day after him. He practices calorie restriction to stay alive long. Besides longevity, he is also a chemist. Imich was born in present-day Częstochowa, Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, on 4 February 1903. In 1951, he and his wife, Wela (1914-1986), immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union and Imich had lived in Manhattan alone since she died in 1986. Early war service Imich stated that, at age 15, he and the rest of his class joined the Polish forces to fight the Bolsheviks in 1918.http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/tags/alexander-imich/ His older brother served as instructor in the automobile division, so Imich learned to drive trucks for the army until the Bolshevik forces were pushed back and Imich returned to school. Academic career He earned a Ph.D in zoology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1929, but as he could not find an academic position in zoology, he switched to chemistry. During the 1920s and 1930s he did some research on a medium, Matylda, for the Polish Society for Psychical Research. He published a report in 1932 in a German journal, Zeitschrift für Parapsychologie, but all of the unpublished notes and photos from the research were lost during World War II. World War II During World War II, Imich and his wife Wela (pronounced Vela) fled to Soviet-occupied Białystok, where he was employed as a chemist. The couple were later interned in a labor camp for the duration of the war due to their refusal to accept Soviet citizenship. They were eventually freed and chose to emigrate to the U.S. in 1951, as almost all of their Polish relatives and friends had died in The Holocaust. Life in the United States In 1952, Imich and his wife Wela (died 1986) emigrated to the United States, first to Pennsylvania and then to New York, dividing their time between both places. To make a living, Imich initially took up chemistry, but once Wela made a career for herself as a psychologist in 1965, he turned to parapsychology. After becoming a widower in 1986, he continued his lifelong interest in parapsychology, giving out the Imich prize for parapsychology research for several years until he began experiencing financial problems. Imich wrote numerous papers for journals in the field and edited a book, Incredible Tales of the Paranormal which was published by Bramble Books in 1995. He formed the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center in 1999, trying to find a way to produce "The Crucial Demonstration", the goal of which is to demonstrate the reality of paranormal phenomena to mainstream scientists and the general public. In 2012, he began to transfer the records of his research into the paranormal to the University of Manitoba Department of Archives and Special Collections. He practiced calorie restriction and attributed his longevity to this. Gallery Alexander Imich young.jpg|Alexander Imich as a younger man Alexander Imich 104.jpg|Alexander Imich at age 104. Alexander Imich 108a.jpg|Alexander Imich at age 108. Alexander Imich 110a.jpg|Alexander Imich at his 110th birthday. Dr_Alexander_Imich-main.jpg|Alexander Imich at age 111 with GWR certificate naming him the World's Oldest Man. References * GERONTOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP Category:WOMs Category:World's Oldest Living Man Title Holders Category:New York deaths Category:Silesia births Category:Supercentenarians notable for other reasons than longevity Category:Russian Empire births Category:Emigrant supercentenarians Category:1920 Polish-Russian War veterans Category:Childless supercentenarians Category:Poland births Category:World War 1 era veterans Category:United States deaths